Melanie Bell Gibbs – Valuable Cheney-Spokane Chapter Volunteer
What would you say about a volunteer who has spent literally years advancing the mission of the Ice Age Floods Institute and still continues to do so, even in semi-retirement? You would have to say she is the prime example of the committed, capable, enthusiastic, and gifted volunteer every organization would like to have. When she moved to the Spokane area from Northeast Texas, a proud Texan became a determined and energetic citizen for the state of Washington–and eventually a valuable member of the Ice Age Floods Institute. She became a member of the Ice Age Floods Institute and Cheney-Spokane Chapter as early as 2005. Over the years she was active: Serving as Secretary, Treasurer, President of the Cheney-Spokane Chapter and currently serves as Past President. Recruiting Sponsors and Partners. Writing grants and was successful in funding production of brochures, booklets, flyers and providing for event exhibiting supplies. Partnering with Spokane Parks and Recreation to ensure the accuracy of the Ice Age Floods story in the Ice Age Floods Playground that opened in Riverfront Park in May 2021. Helping Science Coordinators understand the importance of Floods curriculum for Spokane School District. Assisting chapters organize the logistics of hosting conferences. Becoming a Lifetime Honorary Chapter Board Member in 2023. In January 2007, she became involved with the Ice Age Floods Institute’s Board of Directors when she was elected to the Board and became the Secretary. Over the years she: Developed Board Calendars, Board Directories, and Annual Meeting Planning Masters. Served as Treasurer. Implemented new Membership Management system. Continues on the Executive Committee and is Chair of the Revenue Generating Committee. Everyone who knows her agrees she is the quintessential volunteer and we are fortunate to have her.
Volunteer Profile – Sue Billings
How would you like to have on your team a volunteer who embodies the following qualities: Enthusiasm – Support – Upbeat Attitude – Availability to help – Creative Ideas – Encouragement The Ellensburg chapter has such a member in Sue Billings. She has been involved in several meetings and projects over the last years. And she is almost always available to help out when called upon. She and her husband, Tom Ring, live in the town of Selah—reflecting the wide spread area from which our members come. And she is able to do all this in addition to having a rich lifestyle in which they travel and stay involved in other projects. Thanks so much for your involvement and contributions, Sue. We really appreciate it. Mike Doran, President Ellensburg Chapter Ice Age Floods Institute
Discover A Landscape Carved by Ancient Mega-Floods at Fish Lake Regional Park
Just a short drive east of Cheney, Washington, lies Fish Lake Regional Park, a beautiful 76-acre space offering more than just typical park amenities. This area, easily accessible with parking, play areas, hiking trails, and a swimming beach, tells a dramatic story of a landscape shaped by immense Ice Age floods. You’ll find a paved parking lot at the northeast edge of the park, right by the Fish Lake trailhead. From here, you can hop onto the Columbia Plateau State Park Trail and start your adventure! What makes Fish Lake truly unique is its geology. It’s a double plunge pool, a fascinating feature created by powerful, swirling currents during these ancient mega-floods. These paired, counter-rotating currents scoured out the lake basins, and during periods of low water, you can even spot a partial rock ridge, or rock blade, that divides the two pools. An even larger basalt rock blade separates Fish Lake from the nearby Minnie Creek rock channel and a wide, swampy area it drains into. The significance of Fish Lake isn’t lost on those who study these incredible floods. The local chapter of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), now the Cheney-Spokane Chapter, has been exploring and educating about this area since 2004. Early field trips introduced members to the flood-formed features around Cheney and the Palouse region, with Fish Lake being a key example. Remarkably, even the pioneers of Ice Age Floods research, Joseph Pardee and J Harlen Bretz, visited the Fish Lake area over a century ago, recognizing the powerful forces at play. For those interested in learning more, a video explaining the formation of these scour lakes is available on the IAFI website under the Cheney-Spokane chapter. Geologically, Fish Lake sits on a fascinating junction. It was carved into a chemically weathered contact zone between very old metamorphic rock, dating back a staggering 1.47 billion years, and much younger basalt flows from the Columbia River Basalt Group, around 16 million years old. The lake’s eastward drainage into the Minnie Rock channel further illustrates the powerful erosive forces of the floods. Evidence even suggests the floodwaters in this area reached incredible heights, exceeding 2600 feet, as seen in a small scour lake near Prosser Hill. So, next time you’re looking for a park with natural beauty and a captivating history, consider visiting Fish Lake Regional Park. It’s a place where you can relax and play while standing in a landscape sculpted by one of Earth’s most dramatic events. Condensed from an article by Dr. Linda McCollum, President, Cheney-Spokane Chapter
Whispers from a Frozen Past: “We Have The Bones” – McBones Mammoth Dig
We know the story…a world gripped by ice. Some twenty thousand years ago, colossal glaciers sculpted the landscape, their icy fingers reaching down through the Idaho panhandle. They choked the ancient Clark Fork River, birthing a vast, temporary lake: Glacial Lake Missoula. Then, the inevitable happened. The icy dam buckled, unleashing unimaginable torrents of water that carved a dramatic path across the land in a series of cataclysmic floods. We see their scars today – stark strand lines etched into hillsides, the labyrinthine coulees, silent dry waterfalls, and the scattered, out-of-place “erratic” rocks, silent witnesses to a watery fury. But beyond the sheer power of these floods, a more profound question lingers: What life thrived in the shadow of this impending devastation? What world existed downstream of Glacial Lake Missoula in the fleeting calm before each deluge? The answer, astonishingly, is life. Vibrant and resilient, creatures roamed the landscape, unaware of the watery apocalypse that would soon reshape their world. And now, buried within the very sediments left by those colossal floods, echoes of this Ice Age existence are being unearthed. Just south of the Tri-Cities in Washington, a remarkable discovery is unfolding. Here, the bones of a 17,500-year-old Columbian mammoth are being meticulously excavated, offering a breathtaking glimpse into a time when ice dominated the north. Imagine this majestic creature, striding across a landscape soon to be ravaged by floodwaters, its final resting place a testament to the sheer scale of these geological events. Now a 17,500-year-old Columbian mammoth is being excavated just south of the Tri-Cities in Washington and visitors can tour the site. For many, a visit to this active dig site is within easy reach – a captivating day trip, a memorable overnight stay, or a fascinating detour along the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail. Stand on the very ground where this ancient giant lay buried, a staggering seven hundred feet above the present-day Columbia River, entombed in soil deposited by the very floods that shaped this region. The incredible work of unearthing these secrets is led by the dedicated nonprofit organization, MCBONES. At the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site, they offer a unique opportunity to step back in time. For a modest $10 per person (sign up at www.mcbones.org), from April until mid-October the public can join guided tours of this active paleontological dig. Witness firsthand the careful process of uncovering these ancient relics and hear the compelling story of this mammoth’s burial, the clues it offers about the pre-flood environment, and the ongoing discoveries that are rewriting our understanding of this dramatic period. Every dollar from tour admissions, gift shop sales, and generous donations directly fuels this vital research, ensuring that these whispers from a frozen past continue to be heard.
Ice Age Floods in Western WA
The Mossback’s Northwest production team met in Thurston County last week to research some geological history. We learned that the Missoula Floods that scoured Eastern Washington weren’t the only massive, earth-shaping floods at the end of the last Ice Age some 15,000 years ago. The retreating Puget Lobe — the last ice sheet’s southern extension, which stopped just south of Olympia — sent massive flows south and west as it melted. But while retreating, the ice also blocked rivers flowing from Mount Rainier, like the Carbon and Puyallup. This created a series of glacial lakes which, when unblocked, periodically let loose with floods and debris flows, shaping the valleys and prairies of the region. We talked at length with geologist Patrick Pringle who has, with his research partner Barry Goldstein, studied this phenomenon. As a result of the floods, Pringle says, there is a lot of volcanic rock — from gravel to massive boulders — in the valleys of South Puget Sound that washed down from Tahoma. More on this is coming in Season 11 this fall. Reprinted from the Cascade PBS ‘The Mossback Den’ newsletter
Coyote Canyon Mammoth Dig
The Coyote Canyon Mammoth Dig is an active paleontological excavation site in the Horse Heaven Hills near Kennewick, Washington. It’s a significant project that sheds light on the history of the Ice Age floods in the Tri-Cities area. The dig focuses on the unearthed remains of a Columbian mammoth that lived approximately 17,500 years ago. The mammoth’s carcass was buried in Touchet beds, a geological formation laid down by ancient floods. The site sits at an elevation of 1040 feet above sea level, which is considerably higher than the current elevation of the Columbia River, which is only 350 feet above sea level about 7 miles north. Scientists estimate that Lake Lewis, a massive glacial lake that existed during the Ice Age, reached a maximum surface elevation of over 1200 feet above sea level at the time the mammoth perished. This substantial difference in elevation hints at the immense power of the Ice Age floods that swept across the region. Another fascinating aspect of the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Dig is the discovery of a vast pile of erratic rocks. Initially thought to be a small cluster, the collection of these displaced rocks has grown to extend into several adjacent dig units. A dig unit, for those unfamiliar with archaeological and paleontological fieldwork, is a standardized square measuring 2 meters by 2 meters that archaeologists and paleontologists use to meticulously excavate and collect data. The MCBones Research Center, a non-profit organization, spearheads the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Dig. They offer educational tours for schools and other groups, providing a firsthand look at this significant paleontological excavation. These tours are a great opportunity to learn more about the Ice Age floods, mammoths, and the meticulous work of paleontologists. For more information about the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Dig, including details about tours, visit the MCBones Research Center website at www.mcbones.org.
Volunteers Help Shape the IAFI!
We’re reaching out to ask for your help. As we work toward our mission of promoting public awareness and education about the Ice Age Floods, our chapters have been facing a significant challenge: a shortage of active member volunteers willing to step into leadership roles or assist with essential chapter functions. Many of our current leaders are in their 70s and 80s, and the demands of their roles are becoming challenging. While our dedicated leaders works to maintain our organization’s momentum, we need support to ensure our continued growth and success. Your involvement will be crucial in helping to: Organize events: Assist with planning field trips, chapter functions, and speaker series. Provide administrative support: Help with recordkeeping, website updates, and newsletter contributions. Engage with the community: Connect with local schools and media outlets to spread awareness about our mission. Contribute fresh perspectives: Share your ideas and expertise to help us adapt to a changing world. Here are some ways you can get involved: Volunteer for events: Help plan and execute field trips, workshops, and conferences. Join a committee: Contribute to our leadership team and help make important decisions. Share your expertise: Offer your skills in areas like marketing, communications, or technology. By becoming more involved, you can: Strengthen your chapter: Contribute your time and skills to make your local chapter more vibrant and effective. Share your knowledge: Bring new ideas and contemporary skills to our organization. Support the organization: Help IAFI achieve its goals and become the foremost provider of Ice Age Floods information. No matter your level of experience or commitment, we welcome your participation. Whether you can volunteer a few hours a month or are interested in taking on a leadership role, your involvement will make a significant difference. The involvement of many will lighten the load on the few, and also bring a much-needed infusion of energy and fresh perspectives. We believe that by working together, we can strengthen our organization and better serve our mission of promoting public awareness and education about the Ice Age Floods. Your participation is essential. To get involved, please contact your local chapter through the IAFI.org website
Bitterroot Valley Glacial Erratics
Two glacial erratics in the Bitterroot Valley, the Lone Rock School erratic and the Rome Lane erratic, were deposited during the last high stand of Lake Missoula about 13,000 years ago. Both these glacial erratics are easy to visit. At the extreme Southern end of the Bitterroot Valley is beautiful Lake Como named after its Italian alpine counter part by Father Ravalli a Jesuit Black Robe tasked with bringing literacy and Jesus to the native Salish people in 1845 via St Mary’s Mission in nearby Stevensville. Lake Como is a beautiful place for lunch and a hike/bike on the trail around lake including a beautiful waterfall a the head of the lake. Several mountain glaciers coalesced here and neighboring drainage to make the largest mass of ice calving into the lake south of the Flathead lobe of the Cordilleran ice sheet at Polson. This mass exited the mountains, floated into and calved into Glacial Lake Missoula. This was the primary iceberg generator for the Bitterroot Valley. As they floated out into the lake and melted they dropped large rocks called erratic onto the lake floor, which is now the surface of the valley. Lone Rock School Erratic The easiest one to find is the Lone Rock School erratic. From Stevensville, proceed north on the Eastside Highway, county road 269, to the junction with county road 268, turn right. Follow county road 268 until you reach the Lone Rock School on your left; the erratic is the large boulder in front of the south side of the school, and behind the fence (see map below). The Lone Rock School erratic is 69” tall, 58” wide, 85” long, and weighs in at about 8.5 metric tons or about 18,700 lbs. This large erratic is a type of granite called quartz monzonite. The minerals that make up this rock type are, in order of abundance, plagioclase (calcium and/or sodium rich) feldspar, orthoclase (potassium rich) feldspar, biotite (dark mica), and quartz. If you look closely you will see that the quartz typically stands out in relief with respect to the other minerals and that its surface has been polished to a smooth finish. This is the result of dense glacial ice grinding over the surface of the rock. Rome Lane Erratic The Rome Lane erratic measures 47” tall, 117” long, 96” wide, and weighs in at about 13 metric tons or about 28,600 lbs. The Rome Lane erratic is almost identical to the Lone Rock School erratic; it to is quartz monzonite granite with approximately the same minerals and mineral proportions. The observation that both erratics are of similar rock type suggests that they came from a similar source region. There are sources of quartz monzonite granite in both the Sapphire and Bitterroot Mountains, which is the source of these erratics? Since we know that the erratics were carried to the shores of glacial Lake Missoula by glaciers, we can rule out the Sapphires as a possible source because we know that no glaciers in the Sapphire Mountains ever reached the shores of Lake Missoula. So, the erratics had to come from the Bitterroot Mountains where the quartz monzonite granite lies anywhere between 5 and 20 miles from the ancient shoreline of Lake Missoula. That means glaciers carried the erratics for distances of up to 20 miles (32.2 km) before reaching the shores of glacial Lake Missoula. Which at an average velocity of 5 meters per day (normal for most valley glaciers with the exception of rare bursts in velocity up to 75 meters per day) would take about 18 years. Which Erratic is Oldest? The quartz grains on the surfaces of the Rome Lane erratic are polished to a smooth shine and stand out in relief above the other minerals, similar to the Lone Rock School erratic. However, the quartz grains exposed on the top surface of the Rome Lane erratic seem to exhibit higher relief than the quartz grains exposed on any other side of the Rome Lane erratic and/or the top surface of the Lone Rock School erratic. Why is this? Rainwater is slightly acidic and acidic fluids can break down some minerals, such as feldspar, and turn them into clay. Quartz, however, is very resistant to acidic fluids and as a result takes longer to break down or weather. It is this difference in weathering rates between feldspar and quartz that causes the quartz grains to stand higher than the feldspar grains. So, based on this relationship we can say that the greater the relief between quartz and feldspar on a rock surface, the longer that surface has been exposed to the elements i.e. rain and wind. With that in mind, which erratic’s top surface has been exposed longer? If you answered Lone Rock, you are correct. As it turns out the Lone Rock School erratic was dug up and moved from its original location, about ¾ of a mile to the south of where it sits today, to commemorate the Lone Rock Schools’ centennial in 1985, in fact upon its excavation portions of the erratic broke off and remain buried. So what is the top surface of the Lone Rock School erratic today may well not have been the top surface before 1985, and our mineral weathering hypothesis fits the facts.
The Case for Rapid and Recent flooding in the Upper Grand Coulee
24Sep2024 – This month we are honored to have Dr. Karin Lehnigk, Postdoctoral Researcher at Georgia Tech, as our speaker. Upper Grand Coulee, the largest flood-carved canyon in the Channeled Scabland, has long intrigued scientists and non-scientists alike. Due to its large size, researchers have thought that it likely took multiple glaciations to incise upper Grand Coulee. However, recent geochemical dating and hydraulic simulations of flooding in and around upper Grand Coulee suggest that the canyon was carved by <10 floods, and that this erosion took place entirely during the last Ice Age. The young age and rapid growth of upper Grand Coulee indicates that the Missoula Floods were exceptional agents of landscape change, even compared to other highly-erosive events. The Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington is a perfect location to see how surface processes have changed the appearance of the landscape. Huge glacial outburst floods during the last ice age (Fraser) carved impressive canyons into the basalt bedrock, and the ice, water, and deposited sediment have left a complicated trail to decipher. Karin performed cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating on flood-transported boulders to determine what path the floods took at different points in time. Additionally, she simulated individual flood events by hydraulic modeling over various topographic reconstructions, to constrain the discharges of these floods. Her previous work has focused on river network geometry, using the shapes of fluvial networks on Mars to understand how volcanic activity influenced the movement of water during episodic meltwater floods. Originally from Virginia, Karin was drawn to geomorphology by the range of landscapes she encountered throughout the Mid-Atlantic. She completed her PhD at UMass Amherst, where she studied the landscape impacts of outburst floods in the Channeled Scabland, as well as in Nepal and Norway. She is currently investigating water/sediment interactions in outburst floods in the Himalaya and on Mars, as well as hazards from modern dam-break floods, as a postdoc at Georgia Tech.
October 7 @ 7:00 PM Puget Lobe Chapter Meeting: The case for rapid & recent flooding in upper Grand Coulee
Dr. Karin Lehnigk The Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington is a perfect location to see how surface processes have changed the appearance of the landscape. Huge glacial outburst floods during the last ice age carved impressive canyons into the basalt bedrock, and the ice, water, and deposited sediment have left a complicated trail to decipher. Karin performed cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating on flood-transported boulders to determine what path the floods took at different points in time. Additionally, she simulated individual flood events by hydraulic modeling over various topographic reconstructions, to constrain the discharges of these floods. Her previous work has focused on river network geometry, using the shapes of fluvial networks on Mars to understand how volcanic activity influenced the movement of water during episodic meltwater floods. In person Bellevue College Main Campus R building room 110 Live streamed on Zoom